Rivers Ijaw…Unique people, great culture, endless prospects

In Rivers State, the people have, for a long time, seen themselves as made up of upland and riverine groups. The riverine people are the Ijaw, who believe it is their turn to produce the next governor of the state. BISI OLANIYI examines this unique people.

Ijaw, arguably the fourth largest ethnic group in Nigeria, with fishing as the people’s major occupation, have a noticeable presence in six states in the country- Ondo,Edo,Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States. Ijaws say the word means “truth” or “justice”. Culturally the Ijaws are divided into three blocks following natural river courses. You have Western Ijaws in Ondo, Edo and Delta states;central Ijaw is primarily found in Bayelsa State while Eastern Ijaws are found in Rivers and Akwa Ibom States. Rivers Ijaws are seen by others as urbane and highly educated due to early contact with Europeans.

The Rivers Ijaw people are spread across the coastlines in the over ten local government areas of Andoni, Opobo/Nkoro, Bonny, Okrika, Ogu-Bolo, Port Harcourt (South), Asari-Toru, Degema, Akuku-Toru and Abua-Odual effectively make them more than one third of the state both in population and landmass. The state has 23 local government areas.

The Ijaw have unique culture and they always stand out of the crowd. The dressing of an Ijaw man will not be complete without the bowler (resource control) hat and a walking stick. It is rare to find an Ijaw man in “agbada,”. They have their special top and trousers, which at times is referred to as “chieftaincy”.

Married Ijaw women always traditionally tie two wrappers, with matching blouse, while the single lady will tie one wrapper with the blouse. Both men and women like to complement their dressing with expensive coral beads and gold.

Conducting marriage in Ijaw takes three stages of knocking of door, which is referred to as introduction in the Southwest, to be followed by traditional marriage and rounded off with elaborate church marriage.

Burial in Ijaw is always very expensive, with the deceased’s house first renovated and repainted. Efforts will quickly be made to build house, in a situation where the loved one could not build house till the death, while the body may be in the morgue for many months.

Ijaw people prefer to bury the dead on Saturday morning, while there will be a Christian wake, popularly called “Obito” on Friday evening, to be followed by social wake till dawn.

The food items, plantain is the most popular ,soup, stew and drinks of the Ijaw people are also unique, in view of their hospitable nature. With different types, shapes and sizes of fish, their visitors always feel at home.

They also spare time for “Owambe” (elaborate partying) with uniforms (aso ebi), especially during chieftaincy celebration, house warming, burial, marriage or child dedication.

In spite of the Rivers Ijawland’s richness in crude oil and gas, the people still complain of marginalisation, neglect, pollution and environmental degradation, while calling for increase in the 13 per cent derivation to crude oil and gas producing communities, as well as special attention to be given to the host communities, in terms of development and empowerment of the people.

Upland-riverine dichotomy/ prominent sons

Right from inception, the politics of Rivers State has been played around a concept referred to as Upland/ Riverine dichotomy. Riverine actually refers to Ijaws. Nobody remembers the origin of the concept but all Ijaws agree that it predates the popular Willinks Commission that was set up by the British in 1956 to look into the fears of the minorities/ coastal dwellers. This upland /riverine dichotomy reflects in almost all allocation of political offices from 1979 to date. Since 1999, only the upland part of Rivers State has been at the helm of affairs. This is the root of the current agitation by all Ijaws in Rivers State to be given an opportunity to produce the next governor of Rivers State. This agitation no doubt enjoys the support of other ethnic groups in Rivers State. Recently three groups, Ikwerre Alliance , Eleme General Assembly and Etche Peoples Assembly, threw their weight behind the riverine agitation describing it as just and fair.

The Ijaw people in Rivers State, while appealing for understanding and support by their brothers, under the umbrella of the Eastern Delta People’s Association (EDPA), through the Chairman of the Steering Committee, Lawrence Jumbo, declared that: “On upland/riverine dichotomy we stand.” The Ijaw National Congress (INC) has been vocal on their call for a Governor of Ijaw extraction in Rivers State.

Prominent Rivers Ijaws are distributed in Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressive Congress (APC). APC chieftains include former Deputy Governor Sir Gabriel Toby, Dr Sam Sam Jaja, representative of the Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro constituency in the House of Representatives, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, who is also the Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Rt Hon Otele Amachree, Dawari George, Dr Sokonte Davies,among others.

Harry appears to be the arrow head of the Ijaw struggle. He once ran for the Presidency of the umbrella body of the Ijaw in Nigeria, the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and is the brain behind the Ijaw Republican Assembly (IRA). He is championing the cause of an Ijaw governor after Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

He is the man behind the Rivers Democratic Movement (RDM) and is now better known for a pressure group, Affirmative Bloc for Credible Democracy (ABCD).

In August last year, he authored a piece titled ‘Why Ogoni can’t succeed Amaechi’. In the piece he made it clear that Ogoni is part of Upland Rivers, which has been ruling the state since 1999. It is now the turn of the riverine part of the state, he said.

He wrote: “Old Rivers State was created on the 27th of May 1967 from the then Eastern Region and further balkanised into Bayelsa and the present day Rivers State in 1996. Made up predominantly of Riverine Ijaw (Kalabari, Okrikan, Ibani, Andoni, etc) and the Upland (Ikwerre’s, Ogoni’s, Ekpeye, Etche, Oyigbo, Ogba’s etc). From inception, harmony, brotherhood and cooperation has been sustained through the efficacy and conscientious application and observation of the Upland/Riverine dichotomy principle in the allocation of socio-political and economic gains accruing to the State, as a balancing ideology to promote unity and discourage discord.”

He went on: “Some erstwhile leaders who had tried to repudiate the principle had failed spectacularly and the budding revisionism borne of the myopia of inordinate ambition of an unconscionable few today, would fare no better.”

Harry believes the Ogoni should in good faith ought to concede the exalted position to their Riverine neighbours. Failure to do this, he said would amount to excluding the riverine component of the state from the power matrix for 24 years.

Last week, Harry wrote another treatise. His focus was to insist on the riverine’s right to succeed Amaechi. He said even with the agitation that only the Rivers South East senatorial district that is yet to produce a Governor, that there are Ijaws in all senatorial districts in Rivers State.

He also advised the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, to forget about running for Rivers State governor. Harry said his ambition was immoral, height of injustice and greed, negates equity and against the public conscience in the state.

He said: “Rivers Ijaws will not sit still and watch idly our posterity and heritage consigned to hewers of wood and fetchers of water in the political matrix of our state.”

A Kalabari son, Walson-Jack, is an ex-General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). Speaking at his 50th birthday recently, he expressed worry about some Rivers people’s endorsement of Wike as the governorship candidate of the opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Walson-Jack said: “Upland/riverine dichotomy is something that has been on. We respect the sentiment that has held these two together. Everybody who is well-meaning will decide on the right thing to do at the end of the day. Rest assured that the PDP will take a position that Rivers people will be proud of,

“We need to have a better society. We need to have a society that is caring and we need to have a society that will no longer monopolise prosperity. We must have a society that will share prosperity. We are so prosperous. So loved by God, but we have a society that has left more than 90 per cent of its people behind. All of that has to change. We need to have a government that will accommodate everybody.

“Wike has not told anybody he will run and I think at this point we should not be talking about body language, but he has been endorsed by some groups. I have also been endorsed by so many persons, but at the end of the day, we shall do what is the best for Rivers State. The PDP will put its house together and present somebody that will be acceptable to all Rivers people.”

Another PDP candidate, Engr Jack, said PDP cannot afford to take Rivers people for granted by presenting an upland candidate. He counseled that APC is the party in Government in Rivers State and is equally blessed with credible candidates, such as Senator Magnus Abe, a very articulate politician and Dr. Peterside, who is generally seen as humble, God-fearing and a grassroots politician.

Walson-Jack added: “I am going to run (as Rivers Governor in 2015). A lot of work has been done. My campaign office is ready, but INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) says we cannot start campaign now. So, we have not gone out to begin to campaign. Therefore, we are talking to major stakeholders and so far, I feel that the reception is amazing too and I feel encouraged.”

Even non-Ijaw, such as Barisi Benson Nnah, are rooting for Ijaw governor. Speaking through the Centre for Peace and Development in Ogoni, a Rivers State-based non-governmental organisation, of which he is the president, Nnah has faulted the quest by the people of Ogoni in Rivers State to govern the state in 2015.

Nnah said: “The selfish interest of some individuals who want to be governor against collective interest of the Rivers State people made the ongoing National Conference to exclude Bori State or Ogoni State from the list of states being proposed for creation.

“It was due to the failure of the Ogoni leadership to submit a request for state creation to the national conference secretariat that has now made it impossible for us to have our state listed for creation. They are so fixated on how they would manipulate the process to make an Ogoni man a governor in Rivers in 2015 and we all know that it is not possible, because we know it is the turn of the riverine area.”

He further blamed the exclusion of Ogoni or Bori State on what he described as “the lucrative business called Ogoni Governorship-Project 2015 which has now swallowed up the vision of Ogoni and MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People). What has happened is a lifetime opportunity lost.”

He added: “It is regrettable that the lessons of the over 20 years of the Ogoni struggle for self-determination seems not yet properly assimilated and a golden opportunity as this will slip away and be sacrificed for a mere governorship ambition of some self-seeking individuals pretending to bear Ogoni interests.”

The group urged the Ogoni people to spell out their preferences and pursue the issue of self-determination in the interest of all rather than a self-seeking governorship project disguised as an Ogoni project.

Ijaw in other placesIjaw are also found in Delta states of Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Edo and Ondo, rich in crude oil and gas.

With their specialty in fishing along the coastlines, Ijaw people also settle in Cross River and Lagos states, especially in Ajegunle and other coastal communities.

Bayelsa State, the heart of the Niger Delta, is regarded as the headquarters of the Ijaw nation. Bayelsa is the only homogenous Ijaw state.

There is the Ijaw National Congress (INC), which is the umbrella organisation of the Ijaw people, while the youths have the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC).

For administrative convenience, INC and IYC have the western, central and eastern zones. The western zone is made up of Delta, Edo and Ondo states. The central zone is mainly Bayelsa State. The eastern zone consists of Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.